Henry Miller On His Literary Influences

By: Henry Miller

“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.”

― Henry Miller

Where the specific influences commence is at the brink of manhood, that is, from the time I first dreamed that I too might one day become “a writer.”

The names which follow may be regarded then as the names of authors who influenced me as a man and as a writer, the two becoming more and more inseparable as time went on.